Saturday, May 19, 2007

A Brief History of Video Games: The Arcade Years: Part 3

We all lunged for the seats. There was shoving, pushing, and name-calling. If we had had knives, blood would have been spilled. I managed to get a seat, by virtue of being large and smelly. I do not recall who I played, but I did win, thus setting a precedent of video game dominance that continues well into the present day (all my friends rolled their eyes when they read that). In fact, I won three games in a row, before I ran out of quarters and had to give up my seat.

We played until we ran out of quarters. We then bugged the counter guy into changing our dollars for quarters. We then bugged the various moms in attendance for more money. Had we been allowed, we would have started pan handling outside the restaurant (with signs saying Need Quarters For Pong). Eventually, we were forced to leave, but many of us vowed to return with more quarters.

And that was over Pong. A game so simple I could play it on my watch (assuming they bothered to add such an archaic game to it). But Pong was just the beginning.